


Aftershocks

by Shutka



Category: X-Men (Movies), X-Men - All Media Types, X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014) - Fandom
Genre: Family Fluff, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-09-14
Updated: 2014-09-14
Packaged: 2018-02-17 09:34:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,805
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2304983
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shutka/pseuds/Shutka
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Operation Stop Raven From Killing Trask goes differently and Charles gets to take Raven home.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Aftershocks

Charles hardly knows what he's saying, really, because that's his sister on the conference table, twitching with the aftershocks of being electrocuted, and it makes him truly realize for the first time that she really had been about to be tortured, experimented on, used, _because she had been alone_. He had felt abandoned all these years, but Raven had been alone too, when it counted. It should never have happened; Charles should have been there like he promised.

He tells her as much, that he's going to keep her safe, he says that he and Erik had come for her together, that they had put aside their differences for her, that she doesn't have to choose between them. He touches her and strokes her hair to distract her until the pain passes, but also because he can't help himself; it's been so long and now they're finally together. He feels giddy with it, and his strongest wish right now is for Raven to be happy. And she seems so, for a few moments.

But then Erik turns against them, and for all that it's unexpected Charles doesn't feel surprised at all. He'd long since stopped expecting better from Erik. The others must have been ready too, deep down, because Hank barrels into Erik from the side while Logan attacks from the back. Charles shields Raven instinctively, even as he rationally realizes that won't stop Erik at all. He reaches back and his forearm collides with Raven's shoulder. She gets what he means to do immediately, and they roll/fall off the table together.

Good thing they do, because the hovering gun shoots, the bullet cutting through the air where their bodies had been just a second ago. Erik is on the ground now, with his face against the carpet and no clear idea where his target had moved to, and before he can attack once again Logan smashes his fist into the back of his head and Erik's out like a light.

Suddenly, it's too quiet, and Charles can hear his own mad heartbeat and Raven's ragged breathing in his ear. The hand he reaches towards her is trembling so violently it's a wonder he doesn't poke her in the eye. In the end his fingers curl behind her neck, and she half-leans, half-lurches closer with uncharacteristic gracelessness.

"Are you all right?" Charles asks breathlessly.

Raven nods, and says, "You?" while her eyes rake over him for confirmation.

"Fine," Charles says, and their foreheads knock together. One of Raven's startling yellow eyes is so close her eyelashes would probably brush his skin if she blinked. She doesn't blink; she watches Charles. "Let's go home."

Raven smiles unsteadily, the corner of her mouth twitching, and it's the smell of blood that tips Charles off. He scrambles to sit up while still supporting Raven's neck. Her head nestles in the crook of his elbow and she sighs, and Charles sees the wound now. It's small and round, right in the meat of her calf, just entry, no exit wound. She's bleeding on the floor, but it's slow, sluggish. She'll be all right. He'll make sure she is, this time.

 

* * * 

They do go home, but before that they make a little detour and drop a little packet in Virginia. Erik is nothing if not stubborn, and Charles doesn't intend to let him make any more attempts on his sister's life. Hank had enough presence of mind to wipe the blood off the floor, so they really might have changed the future.

* * *

Raven sleeps on the plane, her head on Charles’s lap, and then in the car on the way to the mansion there's Logan and Hank, so they can't talk. Maybe it's for the better; Charles feels stubbornly, irrationally protective still, and he's almost afraid to speak lest he says the wrong thing and pushes Raven away again. 

He'd held her down while Logan had dug the bullet out of her leg, and he doesn't think he'll ever forget the way her face twisted in pain but she didn't make a sound. Logan was quick and precise, but hardly gentle, and Charles vowed right then and there to stop drinking, even if he hoped he'd never need a steady hand to pull a bulled out of Raven's flesh again.

For her part Raven looks uncertain and rattled, looking at Charles like she too doesn't know what to say, but as soon as she turns to Logan for explanation she seems to get her bearings. It's not a long drive, but by the end of it she knows as much about Logan’s „mission" from the future as Charles does. She takes it all in stride, or at least she appears to. She's too quiet, and that makes Charles uneasy.

Back at the mansion, Raven doesn't comment on the changes, just guides them towards the stairs. Charles supports her with her arm around his neck up to the first step, but then after an exchange of, "may I" and "just don't drop me", he carries her upstairs. 

Raven's old room is right next to Charles's, which is convenient because there aren’t any clean towels in the bathroom, nor soap. Charles lowers Raven in the tub carefully, and jogs to his own room. There's some blood on his shirt, more on his trousers, but there's no time to change. 

The water's already running when he gets back. Raven's propped her bandaged leg on the edge of the tub. Charles helps her wash up, then to bundles herself up in a fluffy white robe. the sight of her in it reminds him so strongly of countless shared evenings in their apartment in Oxford it almost feels like he's the one who's gotten back in time.

She limps to the bed by herself and Charles sits behind her to dry her hair like he used to do sometimes when he didn't have urgent studying to do. Raven's natural hair has always been stiff, and it hurt her a little to rub against the growth. Charles is very careful with it this time.

After it was done Raven lay back against the pillows and tugged him with her. Charles leaned on the headboard, and after a moment's hesitation Raven laid her head on his shoulder. Charles kissed her forehead without thinking, then her temple, her hairline. She let him, and even turned into it.

"How do you feel, really? And I should point that no definition of fine whatsoever includes having just been shot n the leg by a friend, " Charles says, practically against her skin.

There are a few moments of silence, the Raven answers slowly and ponderously.

"Erik was never my friend. Many other things, but not a friend." Her warm hand, a darker blue after the hot bath, settles on Charles’s chest. "If I'm worried about anything, it's you. You look like hell."

"Don't try to change the subject. The person who's been shot doesn't get to worry about other people, other people get to worry about them. That's you, in this instance," Charles says, and tries to make it sound like a joke. 

"In this instance," Raven repeats softly, and then abruptly moves back to look Charles in the eye. She swallows visibly, and her fingers scratch against his shirt before she speaks. "I'm so sorry I didn't stay with you when you got shot. I didn't- it didn't even occur to me that you might not be okay in the end. I should have been there, Charles, and I'll always-"

"Shh, that doesn't matter now," Charles says, and for all that he'd been angry and resentful about it for years, he's telling the truth now. "You're home."

Raven pulls a little further away from him.

"This isn't my home. I'll stay here for now, but not forever. I don't want us to be how it was." The words sound final, cold, but the way her eyes flick towards Charles’s face for a reaction and then quickly away contradicts them.

"Something went so wrong between us and I didn't even notice, and I regret that, but as far as I'm concerned this will always be your home," Charles tells her. He can't be sure what the right thing to say is, so he goes with being honest, spelling out things he used to think were tacitly understood between them, and hope for the best. "And this is not how it was. I might have forgotten sometimes that you're my age and acted like I was your guardian, but you should realize that even if you were fifty years older than me I'd still fuss over you if you were hurt. "

Raven seems to accept that, and when Charles smiles at her and raises his eyebrows in expectation, she smiles back, looking puzzled and pleased at the same time. It lasts all of two seconds before she quickly gets serious again.

"I didn't mean I'll stay until _I,_ 'm better. I was serious before, you really look like death warmed over. This place... I know you never cared for it, but to let it get so unkempt. And that injection you had on the plane - yes, I saw that, and you better not try placating me."

Charles sighs. 

"The thought hadn't even entered my mind. But can we talk about this tomorrow?"

Now it's Raven's turn to sigh, and sit up, and Charles's hand has reached out and touched her shoulder before he'd had time to reconsider. She looks at him inquisitively, and Charles has made many mistakes, but he at least hopes he's learned from them. If she left because she felt he didn't treat her like an equal, he'd make the effort even if he really didn't want to.

"I mean it, I'll tell you everything. I'm not brushing you off, I just want to savor having you here for now."

Raven looks dubious. Ten years ago- hell, a year ago - Charles would have said "you need to stay home", when what he meant was "I need you to stay home", but he was starting to understand what a mistake that would have been.

"I missed you," he blurted out, and Raven jerked in surprise. Charles went on before he'd gotten cold feet. "I've been making rather a mess of things on my own, to tell you the truth."

Raven stayed stock still for a moment or two, reptilian eyes blinking slowly. Then she lowered herself back on Charles's shoulder.

"I'm sure it's nothing that can't be fixed. Tomorrow," she said, and when Charles hugged her one-armed she took hold of his hand and squeezed it reassuringly. "Now, will you read to me? Something boring, I'm sleepy."

Charles rested his chin on the top of her head. It fit perfectly, and he wondered how he hadn't noticed it before.


End file.
